I Believe
by SeaBreeze
Summary: Dm/Hg. involves the throwing of acidic snail skin and poisonous giant rat blood. :) kinda sweet later on... oh yeah and I don't kill anybody in this ;)
1. Why Can't We Be Friends?

You Set Me Free, chapter 1  
  
Hermione hurried down the hall, not daring to believe that she was about to be late for potions. As she ran down the hall, she opened  
her bag to make sure she had everything she needed, when- BANG!- she slammed into someone.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn' watching where I was going..." she began, but trailed off when she saw the person's face. It was Draco Malfoy.  
"Yeah... excuse you," He sneered, strolling away without a backwards glance. Hermione's face grew hot with anger.  
"Hey Malfoy, remember when I hit you?" she spat with clenched teeth. Malfoy glared at her.  
"I don't recall anything like that ever happening," he said lazily. Hermione stood up angrily, tossing her books in her bag.  
"Would you like me to refresh your memory?" she asked with a hint of an evil grin. Malfoy turned a little pale and then headed into the   
classroom without a word. Hermione followed him, grinning at her silent victory. Snape looked up sharply from his teaching.  
"Since you two decided to hold up the entire learning process, you will have to be partnered together for this experiment." He   
snapped, sending Malfoy a sympathetic look. Hermione rolled her eyes and flopped down in the emtpy seat next to Draco. They   
worked silently and hostilly (A.N. is that a word?) until Hermione saw that Malfoy was going to mess up the experiment.  
"No, no, it's two dragonfly wings, not three," she said, quickly pulling the extra wing from the concoction. Malfoy glared at her.  
"Did you just correct me, Mudblood?" he whispered savagely. Hermione was in no mood to take his crap, and she looked him  
straight in the eye.  
"Yes I did, Asshole," she replied, putting the wing back in the jar. Malfoy looked shocked, then surprised, then angry, and then  
extremely angry. Hermione could almost see his blood boil. He called Professor Snape over to their table.  
"Professor, Granger just called me an obscenity," he whined. Hermione almost laughed. Snape rounded on her like a black python.  
"Is this true, Miss Granger?" he asked. Hermione nodded.  
"Yes, Professor. I was unprovoked and felt the need to express my anger to Draco," she said. Harry and Ron snickered in the back,  
and Snape and Malfoy gave her disbelieving looks.  
"10 points from Gryffindor," Snape said slowly, before heading back to his desk. But, to the Gryffindor students present at the time, it   
was worth it. Malfoy looked annoyed that his plan to hurt her had backfired, but couldn't help but feel a little impressed by her daring.  
When the class was over, Malfoy left (to her pleasure) without a word. Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors congratulated her on her  
boldness, and the day went on. That night at dinner, Hermione felt Malfoy's eyes on her, and when she turned to look at him, he was  
glaring at her (surprise, surprise). She couldn't help but grin, happy with her triumph against the evil Slytherin king.  
Later on that night, all Hermione could think of was Malfoy's angry face. All Malfoy could think of was Hermione's sudden boldness,  
and how much is annoyed him.  
  
*************  
The next day in potions, Hermione and Malfoy learned, to their great displeasure, that they would be partnered for quite awhile  
while working on a specific complicated potion. Unavoidably, they got into another riff.  
"Malfoy, pass me the snail's skin." Hermione said offhandedly. He glared at her.  
"My name is Draco, and I wouldn't want to touch your skin, Mudblood," he said maliciously. Hermione looked up at him calmly.  
"Good, because I don't want to touch your skin, either, asshole," she said. "Pass the snail skin," she repeated, calm as ever. This  
was the final straw for Malfoy. He grabbed an acidic snail's skin and threw it at her. It landed on her arm, burning the top layer of  
skin off of it. She howled in pain, before angrily throwing poisonous giant rat's blood at him. Soon, they were having an all-out  
potions ingrediant fight, hurling anything that could do damage at eachother. Snape soon had them under control.  
"Mister Malfoy! I'm surprised at you! And Miss Granger... well, I can't truthfully say I'm surprised at you. No matter, because each of  
you have lost 20 points for your house, and you will come during lunch and dinner every day until you get the potion right!" he   
snapped. "And clean up this mess!" he said before storming out of the room, followed by 20 excited students.  
"Nice going!" Ron mouthed at Hermione with a big grin. She rolled her eyes and started to wipe the stains from the gecko liver off  
the table. Malfoy packed his bags and left, without cleaning up and without a word to Hermione. Before he left the room, Hermione  
picked up a forgotten book of his and threw it at him, catching him in the head.  
"You forgot your book, Malfoy," she said cooly, as he stomped out of the Potions lab. Hermione finnished cleaning up the tables and  
floor before leaving. At lunch, she headed down to the potions dungeon to work on the potion with Malfoy. When she walked into  
the room, he was already there.  
"Where's Snape?" she asked him coldly. He looked up at her quickly.  
"At lunch," he answered, as if she were stupid. Hermione sighed and sat down next to him.  
"Look, Malfoy, if we're going to do this, we might as well get along," she said. He looked at her with a grin.  
"You think we can actually work together without fighting?" he asked. Hermione rolled her eyes.  
"If we try, yes," she replied seriously. He laughed at her again.  
"Sure. Whatever," he said. Hermione stared at him.  
"Well, I'm trying, there's 50% of the effort we need for it," she said. Malfoy glared at her.  
"I'm not going to try," he said stubbornly. Hermione shrugged.  
"Not like I wasn't expecting that," she said. Malfoy rolled his eyes.  
"Let's get to work," he snapped. Hermione smiled evilly.  
"Alright," she said. Her plan was simple, but brilliant and effective. By the end of the lunch period, Malfoy was almost speaking civilly   
to her instead of snapped and calling her mudblood. She knew that he wouldn't be able to take yelling at someone with no reaction.  
When time was up, they cleaned up (yes, both of them) and left. They didn't see eachother until Care of Magical Creatures, 2 hours  
later. Hermione, Harry, and Ron, were working together next to Malfoy, Pansy, and Goyle. Hermione accidently knocked over   
Malfoy's glass of water.  
"Sorry," she said quickly.  
"Watch it, muggle-born," he snapped before going back to work. Hermione was slightly surprised that he was going back to acting   
the way he was, even if it was subdued a bit. She recovered from her surprise quickly.  
"No problem, pond scum," she said under her breath, making Ron laugh hysterically.  
That night, Hermione headed to the potions room to work on the concoction again. She walked into the room, occupied by Malfoy  
only. He looked up as she worked in.  
"Hello," he said, before going to work again. For the second time that day, Hermione was surprised by the pale boy's actions.  
"Hi," she said back, diving right into the potion making. They worked silently for a few minutes.  
"Oh, Malfoy, I figured out what we did wrong last time. We were supposed to make the dragonfly wings powder. Can you hand me the  
bottle?" she asked. He handed it to her.  
"Here," he said. 'Progress,' Hermione thought with a smug grin. And, from then on, it was like that- outside of their private potion-  
making class, they were as rude and malicious as ever, but in those classes they were civil and almost friendly. Throughtout the   
weeks, that friendliness grew, until they almost slowed down their pace on the potion so they could still meet like this. Finally,  
Hermione decided to bring up their friend/foe conflict during one dinner/potion period.  
"Draco... do you ever wonder why we're friendly when we're alone, but when we're around our friends, we're enemies?" she asked.  
Draco looked up abrubtly, looking surprised.  
"No... but I guess it's because my friends expect me to hate muggle-borns, and your's expect you to hate me," he said. Hermione  
decided to press the subject further.  
"And how do you feel about muggle-borns now?" she asked. Draco cocked his head to the side.  
"I'm not sure... they're not so bad, once you get to know them," he said, shrugging. "What about me?" he asked. Hermione nodded.  
"About the same," she said. Draco looked like that settled it.  
"Good," he said.  
"And... what will we do once we're done with the potion?" Hermione asked. Once again, Draco looked up from his work.  
"I guess things go back to normal," he said. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.  
"As in... we're enemies, and we were never friends?" she asked. Draco shrugged again. Hermione threw her hands up in the air.  
"Doesn't that seem a little wrong to you?" she asked. Draco looked at her.  
"Yeah. So?" he said, as if it were unimportant. "We can't change our friends' minds, so we might as well pretend it never really   
happened."  
"But it did," Hermione rebuttled. Draco looked up at her.  
"Yes, and what will the Famous Harry Potter say when he hears his girlfriend is friends with his worst enemy?" he shot back. Hermione  
was taken aback.  
"First of all, don't talk about Harry like that. He didn't ask for his fame. Secondly, I'm NOT his girlfriend," she said firmly. Draco added   
the final ingredient and sat back.  
"O, gosh, sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. Hermione glared at him.  
"Forget you," she said angrily. She stormed out of the dungeon, and Draco called after her.  
"Don't worry, I'll forget you, too!" he laughed maliciously. 'How could I have ever gotten along with that git?' Hermione wondered as   
she headed to the Gryffindor common room.  
Later that night, Hermione decided to sneak out to the kitchen to have a quick drink of pumpkin juice. When she arrived, she was   
greeted by a cold, lazy voice.  
"What are you doing here?" 


	2. The Meeting Place

You Set Me Free chapter 2  
  
Hermione gasped in surprise.  
"What are YOU doing here?" she retorted quickly. Draco stepped out of the shadows, the dim candlelight throwing a golden shadow  
over his face.  
"I asked you first," he said.  
"I'm getting something to drink," she replied coldly. "Now you?"  
"I'm just getting a midnight snack," he said cooly, taking a bite of chocolate. "Want some?" he offered. Hermione narrowed her eyes  
at him.  
"I thought we were enemies again," she said. Draco shrugged.  
"We're alone. Why be that way when we don't have to," he said lazily. Suddenly Hermione realized that they were in fact alone in the  
dark, creepy kitchen.  
"I'm glad someone was down here when I came, this place gives me the creeps at night,"she said, shivering slightly. Draco laughed  
quietly.  
"Thanks, I feel very masculine now," he said sarcastically. She elbowed him.  
"You know what I meant," she said.  
"Look at this hidden room I found," Draco said suddenly, motioning for her to come over near a large table. He bent down and climbed  
under it.  
"Come on," he called back to her. She got down on her knees and crawled after him. After about two minutes of crawling through a tiny  
tunnel, they came to a human-sized room.  
"Oh..." Hermione gasped softly as she entered the softly-lit room. It was decorated with celtic/irish furniture, and the soft lighting came   
from big white flowers the were floating around the room. (A.N. think lothlorien or rivendell in the lotr movie)  
"It's beautiful..." she said quietly as she went over she gently touched one of the floating light-flowers. She turned to Draco.  
"I'm coming here every night," she breathed. Draco grinned.  
"I already do," he said. Hermione smiled.  
"So the cold, heartless Malfoy boy has an eye for beauty," she teased. He shrugged (again!) and looked away, before whipping his  
head towards her.  
"Heartless?" he asked sharply. Hermione winced.  
"Sorry about that," she said, Draco would not accept that.  
"How do you know if I'm heartless or not?" he asked.  
"Well... you're always so cruel to anyone not in Slytherin..." she said meekly.  
"Like you?" he asked. Hermione turned towards him.  
"Yeah. Like me, when we're in public." she said, knowing she had a point. Draco gave in, knowing it too.  
"Ok, ok, you're right. But it's hard, you know? If we're suddenly all friendly to eachother, our friends will get mad and most likely  
get the wrong idea about us," he said logically. Hermione nodded.  
"We could meet here every night." she suggested.   
"Sure. What time though?" he asked. Hermione looked at her watch.  
"Houw about... around 10. Or whenever everybody is asleep." she said. Draco grinned, and held out his hand.  
"Deal," he said.   
"Deal," Hermione repeated, grinning back. 


	3. I Believe

I Believe chapter 3  
  
  
  
walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand  
  
don't ask any questions and don't try to understand  
  
open up your mind and then open up your heart  
  
you will see that you and me aren't very far apart  
  
...love will find a way  
  
  
Hermione went through the next day with excitement, waiting for night to come so she could visit the wonderful room again. She half   
expected Draco to treat her as he did when they were alone, but he didn't. In a way, it was almost fun to have a secret friend- one who  
she could actually relate to better than Harry or Ron. No, relate wasn't the word. There was something extra about Draco that wasn't  
there with neither Harry nor Ron. She couldn't quite put her finger on it yet, and was wondering if it were even there. As she, Harry, and  
Ron were passing Draco and his groupies in the hallway, she couldn't help but tease him.  
"Hey, Draco," she said with a huge grin. He and his friends glared evilly back at her, but Hermione could see that he was having trouble  
holding back a smile. Harry gave her a strange look.  
"What was that all about?" he asked. Before she could answer, Ron was already responding.  
"Whatever it was, it ticked of Malfoy and his cronies. Good enough for me," he said with a lazy grin. Hermione smiled back quickly,   
feeling guilty.  
"So, what class do we have next?" Hermione asked quickly, changing the subject. Ron looked at his schedule.  
"I don't know about you, but we have Charms." he replied. Inwardly, Hermione sighed with relief. At least one period without Harry and  
Ron, in other words at least one period guilt-free.  
  
*****************************  
That night, around 10, Hermione jumped out of bed and pulled on her dark cloak to sneak off to the secret room. She headed through  
the dark, dimly lit pathways until she came to the painting of the bowl of fruit. She tickled the pear, it giggled, and the painting swung   
open. Hermione hurried through it and entered the kitchen. She spotted the table, and bent to crawl into the tiny pathway that led to  
the mystery room. When she could finally stand up straight, she saw Draco sitting on the floor on a large, fluffy, intricately designed  
cushion. He was writing something in a small leather book, every once in awhile glancing around the room.  
"What are you writing?" Hermion asked him. He looked up, startled.  
"Nothing," he said, closing the book and hastily getting up. Hermione grabbed the book before he could stop her and opened it.  
"It's just.... just some things I wrote to describe this room," he said offhandedly, but his usually pale face was suddenly red. Hermione  
opened the book to where the lace bookmark lay.  
  
like the garden on eden  
soft, beautiful, earthy  
secret meeting place  
  
She looked up at him with a tiny grin on her face.  
"How poetic, Draco," she said. He glared at her and snatched it back from her, obviously embarressed at her discovery of his hidden  
hobby. She frowned slightly at him.  
"No, I'm serious, Draco, that's pretty," he scowled.  
"Tell anyone and you'll be in trouble," he threatened. Hermione couldn't help but grin for a second time.  
"Feel like your masculinity is being threatened? Don't worry about that. A lot of girls I know would fall for a girl who writes poetry." she  
said, walking over to the large window overlooking the lake. She let the cool breeze hit her face and blow her hair away from her face,  
and she closed her eyes. Draco hurried over next to her.  
"Really? Girls like stuff like that?" he asked, sounding amazed. Hermione laughed softly.  
"Yeah," she said, wanting to remember the feel of the breeze.  
"Huh," Draco said, leaning against the wall. "Who would've thought," he muttered. Hermione turned around and took in the eauties of  
the room once again.  
"It's almost like being in a whole different world," she mused aloud. Draco looked at her.  
"That's good. I should write that down," he said, grabbing his book. Hermione smiled, and then turned to look out the window again.  
She squinted her eyes as she thought she saw a large figure move near the shore.  
"Draco," she said. He looked up from his writing.  
"Yeah?" he said.  
"Come here. Tell me if you see anything," she said, leaning further out the window to see better. Draco dropped his book on the   
cushion and came near her, squeezing beside her to see.  
"Yeah," he said in a hushed tone. Just as they had begun to turn around, the small figure began waving its arms frantically and yelling.  
They couldn't understand what he (it was a him by the sound of his voice) was saying, but it was angry. Suddenly, a large, angry red  
curse shot up at them. They both gasped in surprise and Draco threw Hermione down on the floor, throwing himself on top of her, and  
the curse barely missed him. It eventually faded in the night air.  
"Whew," Hermione said, breathless from the action (not to mention, Draco was squishing her lungs).  
"Who was that?" Draco asked, looking confused and slightly scared. Hermione felt something move quickly in her stomache.  
"I don't know. We'd better get out of here," she suggested. Just as Draco nodded, they both realized how very close they were, and   
Draco's breathing became heavy. Hermione bit her lip and tried to look away, but had problems because Draco's face was 2 inches  
away from hers.  
"Um," Hermione said nervously as she tried to look busy doing something, anything. Suddenly, she found it impossible to do anything  
but look at Draco, because he was staring deep into her eyes.  
"I, um, er..." she stammered. Draco silenced her but putting his finger against her lip. Immediatly she shut up, a thousand thoughts   
racing through her mind. Draco slowly leaned forward, and instinctively Hermione closed her eyes. Soon afterwards, their lips met and  
they did not part for a few minutes. When they did, Hermion saw that Draco was blushing but his grin was full of joy. He stood up and  
offered his hand to her, pulling her up after him. Hermione stared into his face with confusion, and yet she didn't let go of his hand.  
"But...." she breathed softly. "We... it's us... what will...?" she stammered again, torn between the urge to kiss him again and the feeling  
that she was betraying her friends and what she was about.  
"No one has to know," Draco said softly, looking concerned at her confusion. "We can come here-" he began, but Hermione cut him  
off.  
"And sneak around like that? I can't do this, Draco. It's too hard." she said in a panicky tone, turning to crawl back out of the magic   
room. Before she got on her knees, she paused and turned around. After a second, she ran back to Draco, throwing her arms around  
his neck and burying her face in his chest. He hugged her and ran his fingers through her hair soothingly.  
"How are we going to pull this off?" she asked after a few moments. Draco thought for a minute.  
"We'll act like we always do during the day. At night, we'll come here.Until we find some other way out," he added hastily, seeing her   
face. Hermione nodded, and they headed for the tunnel.  
********************************* 


	4. Never Be The Same Again

Never Be The Same Again chapter 4  
  
  
  
  
Is this something that I might regret   
  
Nothing ventured, nothing gained   
  
A lonely heart that can't be tamed   
  
  
It's not a secret anymore   
  
Now we've opened up the door   
  
Starting tonight and from now on   
  
We'll never, never be the same again   
  
  
  
  
  
But sometimes it seems completely forbidden   
  
To discover those feelings that we kept so well hidden   
  
But wait a fine line's between fate and destiny   
  
Do you belive in the things that were just meant to be?   
  
  
Hermione, Harry, and Ron hurried to their next class, Care of magical creatures. Ron seemed to be watching Hermione with a strange  
expression on his face, but she didn't notice him.  
"What's up, Hermione? You've been acting odd today," he said. Hermione looked up at him.  
"How so?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. Ron shrugged.  
"I don't know, you're really quiet. Sometimes kind of dreamy." he said. Hermione shook her head slowly.  
"No, I'm fine. I'm just tired, that's all," she said quietly, before going back to staring at the ground. Harry looked at her.  
"Are you sure? You seem almost upset," he said. Ron nodded in agreement. Hermione sighed.  
"No, I'm really fine. I was up late last night," she said, not feeling quite as quilty because that, at least, was true. Both boys looked   
comfortable with the answer, so they left her alone and she was left to her thoughts. She felt excited that she would be seeing Draco,  
in a few minutes and later that night, but she also felt like she was betraying Harry and Ron. In a way, she was. Everytime she would  
drift off in thought about Draco, Ron would make a joke or Harry would talk about quidditch and she felt guilty all over again. When they  
got to Hagrid's hut, Hermione discovered that her partner for their current project, Lavender, was missing.  
" All righ', ev'rybody, find yer partner and get goin'!" Hagrid called out to his students happily as they began to work on their task.  
Hermione headed over to Hagrid.  
"Hagrid, Lavender's gone today," Hermione said. Hagrid smiled at her.  
"An' you finnished yer project already, eh? Come with me, we'll water my cabbages." he said, motioning for her to follow him. As they  
watered the cabbages, Hagrid began talking to Hermione about the business of the castle. She half listened until something he said  
caught her ear.  
"... an' I saw somone up in my secret room las' night..." Hermione dropped her water pail.  
"Your... secret room? Which window is it?" she asked, trying to sound merely curious. Hagrid set down his pail and rubbed his beard.  
"I don't know... abou' right there, over the lake," he said, pointing to the window Hermione and Draco had been looking out just the night   
before.  
"Hmmmm," Hermione said, trying to sound only slightly interested. "How did you find it?" she asked. Hagrid smiled.  
"It was in my firs' year," he said dreamily. "an' I was exploring the castle, an' I found this little tunnel, an'... there it was," he said. Hermione  
smiled politely.   
"That sounds nice," she said. Hagrid nodded thoughtfully.  
"Then one day, it disapeared, an' I haven't foun' that tunnel since," he said. Hermione wanted to tell him, but knew that she couldn't. It  
had been Hagrid's secret room, but now it was hers. Hers and Dracos.  
As the class period ended, Hermione grabbed her bag and began to fill it with the many heavy books she usually carried around. Just  
as she stood up to follow Harry and Ron up to the castle, someone slammed into her, knocking her books out of her bag and into a  
big mess all over the ground. Hermione looked up to see Draco smiling at her.  
"Well, well, here we are again," he said softly, before Hagrid yelled over to him.  
"Malfoy! Help her with those books!" he snarled. The two of them bent down to put her books in her bag, and as they finnished (it  
wasn't a quick job; Hermione carried around a lot of books) he gave her a quick peck on the lips while no one was looking. He grinned  
at the suprised look on her face.  
"See you later, Granger," he said quietly, before turning and walking away. Hermione watched his retreating back, feeling light-headed  
and happy. She followed him at a distance up to the castle for dinner.  
  
***********************  
  
As the end of the tunnel came nearer and nearer, Hermione's heart leapt to her throat. Any second now she would be seeing Draco.  
She stepped into the light and pulled the hood of her cloak off her face. Draco was sitting on the floor, his pants rolled up to mid-calf  
and his hair messed up. He had a quill sticking out of his mouth, and he was lost in thought. He didn't even realize Hermione was there  
until she cleared her throat. He looked up quickly.  
"Oh, hi," he said, smiling at her. Hermione grinned at him as he stood up to kiss her on the cheek.  
"You look cute," she said, blushing slightly as he smiled at her again.  
"No, you're prettier," he teased gently. Hermione was amazed at how sweet and quiet Draco could be when he wasn't around his large  
rude friends.  
"Sorry about the bookbag incident today," he said. "I just wanted to talk to you," Hermione couldn't help but grin.  
"I didn't mind at all... maybe it will happen more often." she said with an ornery grin forming on her face. Draco grinned mischieviously  
back at her.  
"Maybe..." he said, and they both laughed. Hermione began to play with the small silver chain on her neck nervously.  
"Um, Draco," she said, looking up at him. "there's something that's been on my mind that has been bugging me for awhile. See, I feel  
REALLY guilty about... doing this with you, sneaking around like this, when my best friends naturally hate you. Is there any way you   
could possibly... be a little nicer to them? More civil, I mean?" Hermione asked, rushing quickly to get it over with. Draco sighed and  
looked out the window.  
"Yeah, I guess... but I'm not suddenly going to become one of their best friends," he warned. Hermione rolled her eyes.  
"Like they'd let you," she said, and Draco nodded. Suddenly there was a loud bang and their heads swang towards the tunnel in   
surprise. 


End file.
